Oni

Oni is a third-person action game released in January 2001, developed by Bungie West and built around hand-to-hand combat rather than shooting. You play an agent code-named Konoko in a cyberpunk world drawn from Ghost in the Shell and Akira. Rockstar Canada built the PlayStation 2 port that Rockstar Games published.

Why Is Oni About Fighting Rather Than Shooting?

Because the design makes guns impractical on purpose. You can carry only one weapon at a time and ammunition is scarce, so most fights come down to punching, kicking and throwing. Progressing through the levels unlocks stronger moves and combos, which is unusual for a third-person action game of that era.

What Is the Bungie Connection?

Oni was made by Bungie West, a division of Bungie, and it was the only game that division ever released. It came out in the same window as Bungie's move to Microsoft and the arrival of Halo, which is a large part of why Oni is remembered as a curiosity rather than as a franchise.

How Do Its Enemies Work?

By class and by tier. Each enemy class has its own unarmed fighting style, and within a class the tiers are colour-coded from green as the weakest through blue to red as the strongest, a system carried over from Bungie's earlier Marathon games. Health is colour-coded on the same logic.

What Is Rockstar's Involvement?

The PlayStation 2 version. Gathering of Developers released the Windows and Mac versions in 2001, and Rockstar Canada built the PS2 port that Rockstar Games published. The Rockstar name is on the console release rather than on the original design.